Presidential Visits

WHEN PRESIDENT Reagan visited Epcot Center on Memorial Day, the Sentinel carried a story about trips to the area by other presidents.

I would like to add to that story visits to Winter Park by Chester A. Arthur, Grover Cleveland and Calvin Coolidge.

April 9, 1883: President Arthur and the secretary of the Navy rode through town in a buckboard. They halted in front of the Rogers House, where they were greeted by schoolchildren with flowers and women with lemonade. On their way to the train, they visited the town hall bedecked with flags and flowers. The president called Winter Park ''the prettiest spot in Florida.''

Feb. 24, 1888: President and Mrs. Cleveland came to the Seminole Hotel. From the promenade on top of the building, they viewed the lakes and orange groves. Then on a steam yacht they cruised around Lake Osceola and through the canal to Lake Virginia. The president had requested that he be allowed to have a quiet visit, but he shook hands with everyone who came to see him. Late that day the Clevelands rode the little horse-drawn streetcar down New England Avenue to the station.

January 1930: Former President and Mrs. Coolidge were honored guests at a Rollins College program in Recreation Hall on the shore of Lake Virginia. When Hamilton Holt, president of Rollins, introduced him to the 2,000 students and townspeople, ''Silent Cal'' said not one word.